Landmark Legal Foundation

The Landmark Legal Foundation (LLF) has a $1 million annual budget and a reputation as a "conservative's American Civil Liberties Union." It has filed lawsuits against labor unions and school desegregation and has fought for legislation that would allow parents to direct public education funding toward their children's private schools.

History
In the early 1990s, LLF twice presented arguments before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in support of Governor Tommy Thompson's "school-choice voucher program" to channel public funding to private schools. It has frequently clashed with the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' union.

Former Whitewater special investigator Kenneth Starr also has ties to Landmark, which played a key behind-the-scenes role in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton.

The President of LLF, Mark Levin announced in February 2001 that it was launching its "501-C Project" to "ensure that liberal non-profit organizations that lobby against presidential appointments comply with U.S. tax and lobbying laws."

The Unification Church-owned Washington Times reported that Landmark has asked the Internal Revenue Service "to investigate accusations that several civil rights groups and other nonprofit organizations violated their federal tax-exempt status by participating in lobbying efforts against the nomination of John Ashcroft as attorney general." 

"Published reports reveal that scores of liberal, 501(c) tax-exempt groups spent the last month, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a well-coordinated and highly organized lobbying campaign against the Ashcroft nomination. They have also announced that they will lobby against future nominees who they consider too conservative. The IRS must look at these activities very carefully to ensure that these organizations are not skirting the law or failing to pay their taxes," Levin wrote in the Washington Times.

At present, Landmark Legal Foundation bills itself as "the only public interest legal group - from the right or the left - to use the Lewis Libby prosecution by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to raise the issue of abuse of the "appointments clause:" in the U.S. Constitution to circumvent constitutional limitations on the power of the federal government to investigate suspected violations of federal law."

On August 17, 2007, Landmark filed a Amicus Curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, supporting Lewis Libby's argument that the appointment of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, US Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois, as Special Prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. Landmark also filed a motion for permission to file the amicus brief, the same day.

On August 20, 2007, the appeals court granted the motion to file the amicus brief.

Landmark has posted the amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief, more than 30 pages long, on its web site. The same argument was made before the U.S. District Court and was rejected by Judge Reggie B. Walton; the amicus brief requests that the lower court's decision be overturned.

Personnel

 * Mark Levin, president
 * Jerald Hill, former president

Funders

 * Allegheny Foundation
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
 * Carthage Foundation
 * Castle Rock Foundation
 * JM Foundation
 * Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
 * Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.
 * John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
 * Sarah Scaife Foundation
 * Scaife Family Foundation

Contact information
Landmark Legal Foundation 19415 Deerfield Avenue, Suite 312 Leesburg, VA 20176 Phone: (703) 554-6100 Fax: (703) 554-6119

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3100 Broadway, Suite 1110 Kansas City, Missouri 64111 Phone: (816) 931-5559 Fax: (816) 931-1115

Email: eric AT landmarklegal.org Web: http://www.landmarklegal.org